Department of Chemistry
Seminar
9:45 a.m. Thursday, March 22 • 331 Smith Hall
Michael Best
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Chemical Approaches to the Investigation
of Protein-Membrane Binding Interactions
Using Synthetic Lipid Probes
Research interests involve the design and synthesis of molecules that can be implemented
for studies or applications pertaining to biological systems. One aspect of this involves the
study of cell-surface recognition events.
Website: http://www.chem.utk.edu/faculty/best.html
Abstract
Signaling lipids present in cell membranes act as important regulators of biological processes
and have been implicated in the onset of numerous diseases. A common role of these lipids is
the recruitment of proteins to the cell membrane surface through binding events that generally
regulate protein function and localization. While understanding these interactions at the
molecular level is of great interest, such efforts are hindered by the complexity of the
membrane environment in which binding occurs. Toward this end, chemical strategies will be
presented by which protein–membrane recognition events can be efficiently characterized.
First, the design and synthesis of lipid probes corresponding to signaling lipids including
diacylglycerol, phosphatidic acid and the phosphoinositides will be described. Next, the
application of these probes for elucidating binding details will be presented, including the
development of multi-format microarray analysis for investigating protein–lipid recognition in
different contexts, and bifunctional probes that allow for collective labeling of target receptors
in cell extracts, including those associated with disease.
Host: Professor Mark Distefano
Refreshments will be served prior to the seminar.